"He greeted me with a big smile and he seemed to be brimming with hope and energy," says Sam. The prime minister had just returned from a trip to South Korea where he signed an memorandum of understanding for the biggest oil and infrastructure projects in the history of the region.

"We were talking about the tensions between his region and Baghdad over oil contracts. The talk shifted to Turkey. Then one of his assistants came in with a mobile phone saying he had a very urgent call.

Mr. Barzani came back 10 minutes later and told Sam that Turkish troops and tanks were crossing into Kurdistan in numbers never seen before (see story).